Delta Adds Los Angeles To Melbourne Flights As Of Late 2025

Plans have been revealed for Delta Air Lines to launch another route to the South Pacific, which is a region in which the carrier has historically been pretty weak (thanks to @xJonNYC for flagging this).

While this was initially supposed to be announced by Delta this past Friday, it seems the announcement was delayed due to the recent crash we saw here in the United States. Nonetheless, it appears the airline is in the process of loading the flight into the schedule, so we also have some more details.

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Delta will start flying to Melbourne, Australia

As of December 3, 2025, Delta will offer a new flight between Los Angeles (LAX) and Melbourne (MEL). The 7,921-mile journey will operate three times weekly, with the following schedule:

DL11 Los Angeles to Melbourne departing 9:25PM arriving 8:15AM (+2 days)
DL12 Melbourne to Los Angeles departing 10:25AM arriving 6:10AM

The westbound flight is blocked at 15hr50min and will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while the eastbound flight is blocked at 14hr45min and will operate on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

Delta intends to use one of its premium configured Airbus A350-900 for the route, featuring 275 seats. This includes 40 business class seats, 40 premium economy seats, 36 extra legroom economy seats, and 159 economy seats.

Flights are expected to go on sale shortly, likely this weekend — the flights have now been loaded into the schedule, but inventory hasn’t yet been added.

Once launched, this will be Delta’s third longest route, after the carrier’s services from Atlanta (ATL) to both Cape Town (CPT) and Johannesburg (JNB). Meanwhile it will be Delta’s fifth destination in the South Pacific, after year-round service to Sydney (SYD), plus seasonal service to Auckland (AKL), Brisbane (BNE), and Papeete (PPT).

How this fits into the competitive landscape

Among the “big three” US carriers, Delta has the weakest network in the South Pacific, in terms of its own flights and overall connectivity:

• While American doesn’t have that much service to the South Pacific on its own metal, the airline has a joint venture with Qantas, offering considerable connectivity
• United operates the most flights of any of the “big three” US airlines on its own metal to the South Pacific, and also has a partnership with Virgin Australia

In the Los Angeles to Melbourne market, Delta will be competing directly with Qantas and United. Delta will have a disadvantage not just in terms of connectivity, but also in terms of frequency. While Qantas and United operate the route up to daily in peak season, Delta will only operate it three times per week.

So, why is Delta suddenly launching flights to Melbourne? Well, the world’s most profitable airline does love chasing subsidies. In 2024, we saw Delta launch subsidized service to Brisbane, and now the airline is doing the same in Melbourne. Hey, I can’t blame the airline for taking free and guaranteed money!

This deal is a partnership between the Allan Labor Government and Melbourne Airport, and this is being offered with part of the new funding program that was announced in the Labor Government’s Economic Growth Statement. The Industry Partnerships Program allows Visit Victoria to match funding from industry partners for destination marketing, and this is part of that.

So anyway, it’ll be interesting to see if the new service to Brisbane and Melbourne sticks around after the incentives run out, or if Delta is just using the opportunity to temporarily pad its bottom line.

Bottom line

As of December 2025, Delta will launch a new three times weekly route between Los Angeles and Melbourne using Airbus A350s. Delta has been growing nicely in the South Pacific, though the two most recent adds have both been routes with government incentives.

Ultimately this is probably as good of a “return” as Delta will get on its excess wide bodies outside of the peak summer season, so it seems logical enough.

What do you make of Delta launching Los Angeles to Melbourne flights?